ANGUIDAE 539 



Although it can bite so well, it never does so when caught, but 

 resorts to the much more disagreeable defence of twisting 

 itself around one's hand and arm, and besmearing them with its 

 disgustingly stinking excrements. Those who have observed 

 Glass-snakes praise their tameness, and the intelligent way in 

 which they hunt about in search of their food. They lay eggs 

 under moss and leaves, and the young seem to require many 

 years to grow up. 



Anguis, with only one si^ecies, A. fragil is, the "Slow- worm" or 

 " Blind-worm," is devoid of a lateral fold. Limbs are entirely 

 absent. The whole body is covered with smooth roundish 



Fig. 136. — Anguis fragilis (the Slow- worm), x ^. 



scales, with a substratum of dermal ossifications. The teeth are 

 curved backwards, fang-shaped, and have a very faint longi- 

 tudinal groove on their anterior surface. The ear-opening is 

 very minute, more or less hidden by surrounding scales. The 

 eyes are perfectly well developed, provided with movable lids, and 

 it does not speak well for the power of observation of most people 

 that this creature should generally be known as the " Blind-worm." 

 The whole skin is shiny, metallic, quite smooth, brown above, 

 blackish below. But the coloration is subject to much indi- 

 vidual variation. Old specimens are sometimes adorned with 

 blue specks. The very young are exquisitely beautiful, the 

 upper surface being silvery white, with a median and two more 

 lateral lines of deep black ; the under parts are black. The iris 

 is yellowish red. Very large specimens measure more than one 



